LAST year, we had a rude awakening about plastic pollution.
Plastic waste from the United Kingdom was dumped on our shores under the guise of trade. Containers of dirty plastics, meant mostly for the landfills, were apparently imported for recycling. China, which used to be the destination for such waste, suddenly banned the import of such raw materials.
In the UK, plastic waste is exported due to attractive compensation schemes. The issue came to light after pictures of piles of such waste were splashed all over the local media. All at once, plastic was chastised as the bad boy of modern living.
The issue of plastic pollution is not entirely new. The public had long been told of how plastic waste polluted the oceans. Evidence of islands of plastic waste in the oceans had been shared. Reports of turtles dying after becoming entangled in plastic strings were widely featured. All this sensation created hate for plastic.
The situation grew serious when scientists, tracing the source of such plastic waste, found evidence of microplastics in fishes. That scary piece of news about microplastics entering our food chain was enough to provoke more hate for plastic. The call for alternatives became fashionable.
This created more funding for research and development to invent more degradable bioplastics. But is bioplastics the real solution?
A recent webinar on plastic recycling gave me a better perspective of the issue.
The online presentation by the Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association on the role of plastic packaging in our everyday life proved educational and enlightening. Many may not realise that plastic packaging has for years contributed to our lifestyle of convenience. Unfortunately, we have abused such convenience.
Our action of disposing of plastic packages indiscriminately is largely responsible for putting such harmless plastic in bad repute.
By totally banning the material, we may even be deprived of benefiting from such a technological wonder. We should first understand why packaging, especially of food, is needed to better appreciate the issue.
The truth is, packaging helps increase the shelf life of food. Food that is not properly packaged goes bad faster. Plastics has demonstrated optimal performance in terms of cost and benefit. That explains why plastic packaging has increased in popularity.
Proper packaging of food will also mean less food waste.
In contrast, without plastic packaging, the increase in food waste is inevitable. It has been reported that more than half of the country's waste is made up of food waste. In the landfills, such waste produces methane when it decomposes. Methane is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. In a way, plastic packaging helps cut carbon emission.
The total turnover of the plastic industry in Malaysia has reached RM33.1 billion, almost 4.3 per cent of the gross domestic product. Packaging is the largest segment, accounting for 48 per cent. The demand for packaging has been rising as food consumption grows. The compound growth rate is estimated at four per cent.
The issue of plastics is not the material itself but how we deal with used plastics. Recycling is the prefered route. But it is easier said than done. Plastic recycling is only viable if the plastic waste is segregated according to the different starting material, as defined by the coding of plastics. Mixing up the plastics makes recycling more costly.
It is even worse when the plastic waste is mixed up with food waste. The industry is aiming for circularity in the plastics business. This simply means no leakage of plastics into the natural environment.
The recommendation is to reuse, repair or dispose.
Unlike Japan and South Korea, where plastic segregation has evolved into a culture, we mostly mix up our plastic waste. A high percentage of that ends in the landfills. Segregation must be supported by a strong collection system to be effective. Unfortunately, we still struggle to create such an ecosystem for a circular plastics economy.
A fully functioning circular economy will drastically reduce the necessity to import plastic waste from the West. In Malaysia, the recycling rate is about 30 per cent. If this can be increased, the issue of plastics polluting our environment will soon be history.
The writer is a fellow at Academy of Sciences Malaysia, UCSI University
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times